Savings 2016-17 Reduction of mobile library service
| Title | Savings 2016-17 Reduction of mobile library service |
|---|---|
| Council Resource | Community and Enterprise |
| Service Area | Community and Enterprise |
| Aims and Objectives | The reduction of the mobile library service to one vehicle serving South Lanarkshire is recommended as the existing vehicle fleet is no longer suitable for continued service provision due to physical condition and the costs associated with vehicle replacement. The mobile timetable will be amended so that mobile stops which have had little or no usage in the past twelve months will be deleted from the timetable. In addition, the 29 primary schools that receive a mobile visit will continue to receive a mobile visit on a frequency reduced from weekly to fortnightly, but a longer stop to allow more interaction with the children. Currently, approximately 500 children use the mobile libraries over a month out of a total of 1,200 monthly mobile users.The proposal is that a menu of activities will be offered to the primary schools and associated nurseries by the libraries childrens services team in conjunction with the mobile library service. These will include the existing "Meet the Books" programme for primary age children and "Shake, Rattle and Read" and "Toddler Tales" for nursery children. These activities all aim to develop literacy skills and are based around books and stories. Key events such as the Summer Reading Challenge, Book week Scotland and National Tell-a-story day will continue to be delivered to rural primary schools. This will be in place from April 2016. The provision of good transport facilities to locations with static branch libraries offer opportunities to provide full library services to current mobile library users. |
| Conclusion | The reduction of the mobile library service to one vehicle is recommended as the existing vehicle fleet is no longer suitable for continued service provision due to physical condition and the costs associated with replacement. The reorganization of the mobile library schedule to eliminate stops which have had little or no use will allow the majority of stops to continue to receive a service with frequency altered from weekly to fortnightly. The impact on older, disabled and vulnerable customers will be mitigated by the provision of the door to door library home delivery service. |
| Completion date | 2014 - 2018 |
| Contact Email address | equalities@southlanarkshire.gov.uk |
| Area | Council Wide |